


Nightly Exploration

by Evekle



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, Exploration, M/M, So a kid gets tortured but it's seen through the outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 22:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13890147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evekle/pseuds/Evekle
Summary: An insight to the other Gladers and two of them explore the compound and they find a machine. Add in the fact that they run into Janson, things get complicated. Just a fic with some of my pre-maze headcanons slammed into it.





	Nightly Exploration

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was one that got out of hand really fast and it's all around 2000 words in total. Longest work as of right now. Signing off and happy reading!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are much appreciated!

Exploring the WICKED compound at night wasn’t the best idea, he knows that. It’s the idea that the adults are withholding some sort of information that forces the two of them to continue. They’ve been looking through this place for around a year now. 

 

From what they’ve managed to find, the place has five levels and a basement. Floors one is a place for learning for the subjects or in other words, them. The next floor is filled with lab equipment from microscopes to basic supplies such as pens and paper. By far floor two was the most heavily guarded as the adults seem to not want some crazy teenagers to break everything in this floor. By the time they got to the third floor, they were believing that it was going to be just like the second floor, more supplies. It turned out it was true, it was filled to the brim with paper upon papers of ‘subject information’. As for the fourth and fifth floor, they were still looking. And tonight, they were venturing around the fourth floor of the building. 

 

“Hey, Pete? I’m sure we’ve already been through here.” Adam says, with his voice echoing through the halls.

“Yeah think so.” the other boy replies back.   
“Where now?”

“There’s a door there, open it, I think we’ll have to add another room onto our maps.”

“Right. Let’s go Fly-boy.”

 

The two boys enter the room and what they find astounds both of them. It’s a machine. There’s the metal portions gleaming with light from their flashlights and it’s completely up.

 

“Adam,  what do you think it does?” the blond whispers.

“I don’t know.”

“We always think of something, just give me anything. I have to put it on the map.”

“Alright. I say it’s a torture machine.”   
“Morbid. C’mon let’s go back to base. This place gives me creeps…”

 

And the two boys leave the room, away from the ‘machine’. To them, it’s a successful run for the night, from what they can conclude, they’ve managed to explore the entire place except the basement as the door to it is locked. This obviously becomes their next place of interest, they plan to go the next day. 

 

\-------

(The next day…)

 

The subjects discover that WICKED has gotten another ‘leader’ of sorts. Everyone just calls him ‘Rat-man’, with his given facial features  _ and  _ his personality. Neither Adam or Peter wanted to pay him any attention, since he didn’t seem like a threat to their nightly runs for his terrible build. For Rat-man was as thin as a thread and looked like good push would shatter the guy. That night, they snuck out again, going to the machine room just to make sure their mapping wasn’t wrong. 

 

“Why are we here again?” Adam asks quietly.

“To make sure we plotted this right. Don’t want any mistakes on these guys.” Peter replies gesturing to the map. 

“What if we get caught?”

“We won’t. They haven’t caught us for a year Pete!” Adam says as he grabs Peter’s hands before letting go again. “I’ll make sure they won’t.” 

“Yeah yeah yeah. C’mon let’s explore this place just a bit more, I think there’s some cabinets.”

There’s a pause. Footsteps can be heard in the hallways, echoing completely through, and both boys automatically stop moving. Peter drags his friend under a table in the room. 

 

“Shush. I think it’s that Rat guy.”

“What makes you think that?”

 

The footsteps get louder and louder before stopping. Both boys hold their breaths, they’ve never had this happen before. Everything is silent before the footsteps begin again. The person is in the same room they are in, Adam feels the coldness creep up his shoulder and holds his breath, and from where he is, he feels Peter trying to stay quiet. Then they hear the voice, it’s Rat-man, and they’re in the same room as him, there’s no way out from the looks of it. 

“I know you’re there. Come on out you two.” 

 

_ Tap. _

 

_ Tap. _

 

_ Tap. _

 

Rat-man’s getting closer to where they’re hiding. The sound of his shoes are getting louder. Then Adam sees his shoes, those shiny black shoes. The man is right beside where they are hiding.

 

“Boys, there’s  _ no  _ need to try and hide. I know you’re here.”  _ It  _ **_is_ ** _ Rat-man. Crap,  _ Adam curses under his breath. He can hear Peter’s rapid breathing, he hopes Peter can stay calm until Rat-man leaves. There’s a silence in the room, a pin could be dropped and it would echo through the halls.

 

Then the guy leans down, and they’re discovered.  _ Brilliant. Just brilliant.  _ There’s nothing they can do to get out of the situation. Peter is completely white in the face but there’s determination in his eyes, his eyes are bright. That’s when Peter blows it, he says something just for defiance sake just like the type of ‘hero’ he is. 

 

“We’re down here. What are you going to do about,  _ Rat-man _ ?” Pete says loudly, his voice only wavering a little.

“Pete! What the hell?!” he can’t hold his tongue anymore.  _ Why the  _ **_hell_ ** _ did he do that?!  _ Look, he gets that Peter has always been defiant by nature but this is-this is just another level of ridiculousness. And sure enough, Rat-man finds them because of Peter’s statement. 

“Nice to meet you two. Peter and Alan right? Or to the WICKED, A13 and A15. Pleasure to meet you two. Now would you like to tell me  _ why  _ you two are sneaking around at night?”

 

There’s a pause. What could they say?  _ Oh we’re just sneaking around since we want to map the entire place! Yeah no, not going to work.  _ So Adam just improvises and hopes that Peter would back him up on this one. Gods, he wishes Eric was here to save them, he can improvise a whole believable story if need be.

 

“We were curious. Mister.. Mister?” Adam tries to recall the man’s name as they crawl out from under the table. He drags Peter out too by the wrist and has his friend stand right beside him.

“Janson. Just Janson.”

“We were curious. This room looked really cool and we just really wanted to see what was in this room.” Peter looks at him as if he’s grown another arm and then the other boy just nods.  _ OK, he knows where this is going.  _

“Now what were you so interested in?” 

“This  _ thing _ .” Peter’s moving forward, voice becoming stronger as he keeps on talking and pointing at the machine in the middle of the room. “What does it do?” 

“Oh this  _ thing _ . It’s our new technology, it’s going to help us find the Cure.” 

_ Again with the Cure,  _ Adam thinks. It’s odd sure but this doesn’t answer what the  _ thing  _ does.

“OK sure. But what the hell does this thing do?” 

“Well, it’s supposed to extract a specific enzyme from the brain but it’s still a work in progress. We haven’t gotten the chance to use these on the subjects yet.”

“Alright then. I guess we’ll just go, thanks for the info mister Janson.” 

 

They bolt out of the room, leaving the older man inside. Both of them running the rest of the way back, still holding on their maps for the rest before hitting the dorms. Adam has never been so terrified of an adult before. Janson gives him the creeps and he’s shivering from the encounter with the man. Hopefully that's the only time they'll meet. For the next few weeks, the boys avoid going around at night, not wanting to run into Janson again. 

\-----------

 

It's a year later when they run into the guy again. The irony is how it's in the same room, albeit in a different way. Adam had wanted to see the place just one more time since Eric wanted to know what the place looked like and they were back, only to run into Rat-man in the room again. The man turns around and just looks at the two boys.

 

“Oh A13 and A15, it’s you again.’

“Yeah…” Adam responds.

“I might as well show you what this thing is then. Does one of you want to try it?” There’s a pause and Adam looks Peter dead in the eyes.  _ Don’t do something stupid.  _

“How about you A13, you seem quite fascinated in this machine.” 

“So what if I am?  _ You  _ want me to get on that  _ thing? _ ”

“Only if you really want to know what it can do. It’s your choice A13.” Rat-man seems so nonchalant about the idea, his entire body relaxed. Looking to his friend, Peter is drawn tight like a bowstring. Adam can’t tell what his Fly-boy is thinking but it probably isn’t good.

There’s a pause before Peter responds.

 

“Alright.”

“Pete…” 

“It’ll be alright, don’t worry Ad.” 

 

And he gets onto the machine, lying down, Peter looks determined but Adam can feel the fear radiating off of him. Adam wants to stop him but what could he do? It’s completely out his control this time, and Peter seems dead set on knowing what the machine could do. Then Rat-man takes out a syringe, it’s filled with a yellow liquid.  _ Where did that come from? _

 

“A13, you might want to stay calm for this.” the man says before injecting the needle into his friend’s arm. Peter goes limp, well at the very least he’s stopped fidgeting. The guy then starts moving 

“What was the shuck are you _doing?_ ” Adam feels the coldness creeping back up again, his hands are freezing again. 

“It’s a paralytic and this,” Rat-man gestures to some tubs and one with a single needle on it before sticking it into the back of Pete’s neck, “is how we’re getting the enzymes from your friend.” 

“What?!” 

“He agreed to this, A15.” 

 

There’s a pause again. Adam can’t believe Pete would do something so  _ stupid.  _ He’s stuck looking at those  _ tubes  _ coming out from his friend. At first there’s nothing going on, the silence is drowning out Adam’s thoughts, then the crying begins. Adam can’t see what’s going on, all he knows is that Peter is in pain, he’s running to his friend and holding onto the other boy’s hands. 

 

“What did you do to him?!” he yells at Rat-man.

Adam gets no response.

 

He’s just clinging onto his friend, trying  _ just trying  _ to get him to calm down. It started off simple, it’s just muffled breathing and occasional whimpers. It escalates into screaming soon after and his friends voice lets out. From what he is able to tell, the sobbing starts right before Pete wakes up. Adam doesn’t know how long it takes before the other boy wakes up from the drugs, all he knows is that he stayed by his side the entire time. 

 

“Hey Pete? You still alive?” he asks, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a minute won’t you?” Fly-boy replies back, his voice still hoarse from the screaming but he looks fine. 

“That was  _ not  _ what I had expected from A13,” Rat-man says suddenly.  _ Right. He’s still here.  _ Adam had completely forgot that the man was still there, and this time, he’s holding up a small cylinder of a blue liquid, most likely those enzymes Pete managed to produce.

“We’re going to go. I’m sure the machine works just fine, c’mon Fly-boy.” he replies back. They got to get back. Peter had managed to get off the  _ thing  _ despite still looking weak from the drugs. They leave Janson in the room and Adam carries Peter through the winding hallways of the compound. By the time they get back, every other kid is awake and they’re pestered with questions.  _ Where did you guys go? Why is Peter looking that way?  _ They ask. Adam’s head hurts, he’s basically saw his friend getting tortured and he still doesn’t know what the machine does and has no intention of knowing. 

 

The rest of the day flies by, Peter still insisting he go to their classes despite saying that he still feels light headed. That night, they just stay in the dorms, they aren’t going exploring for a month and Adam doesn't bother asking Peter what the machine does. Night exploration is something they avoid now, no more mapping.  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
